China launched another secretive Tongxin Jishu Shiyan Weixing (TJSW) satellite on 4 February. The launch took place at 15:36 UTC using the Chang Zheng-3B/G2 (known as the Long March 3B/G2 outside of China) launch vehicle from launch site LC3 at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center.
Originally, it was reported the launch would orbit a satellite on the Tianhui series and carrying a Synthetic Aperture Radar, or SAR, antenna to geosynchronous orbit. But a few hours before the launch, reports changed to indicate that the cargo onboard would be another experimental communications system on the TJSW series.
Official Chinese media outlets report the satellite will mainly be “used for satellite communications, radio and television, data transmission and other services, and carry out related technical test verification.”